The present disclosure generally relates to alkaline batteries using electrolytic manganese dioxide as positive electrode active materials.
With recent rapid widespread use of mobile electronic equipment, alkaline batteries have been widely used as power supplies for such equipment because of their high energy density per unit weight. As typical materials for positive electrode active materials of the alkaline batteries, electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) is known. Electrolytic manganese dioxide generally contains moisture, ash, and other inevitable substances, and the net purity (i.e., the purity of a portion functioning as an active material) of manganese dioxide (MnO2) in electrolytic manganese dioxide is 90-something percents. The technique of increasing the potential of manganese dioxide (typically 270 mV or more) in order to enhance discharge performance is known (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-47445).